Disappointing to advise that a decision has had to made to CANCEL our scheduled 2019 Tuggeranong Challenge meet, planned for 21 Sep 19!

The reason for the cancellation is a lack of entries. We received a disappointing response from ACT and regional clubs. The number of entries received was insufficient to ensure an appropriately lively, enjoyable and competitive event. It would not have been worthwhile for volunteer officials (many of whom would have had to travel to Canberra for the event) to offer their time.

Entrants will be contacted shortly so that refunds can occur.

A very big thank you to the Vikings members who had already expended considerable effort in preparation and organising, and thank you to those from elsewhere who were prepared to put their hands up.

During 2018 eleven Viking swimmers completed the Australian Masters Endurance Program. The program runs throughout the year and involves gaining points through completing up to 62 swims ranging from 400m to 1 hour of continuous swimming.

As a club, we won the NSW pointscore, and gained third place nationally. 2018 saw the highest annual points ever scored by the club – a fabulous total of 16,911 points scored by 41 swimmers. Great participation! Those Vikings came VERY close to acheiving a combined one million metres, acheiving a total of 955.8 km, over 1170 recorded swims. Both of these figures are also the highest ever achieved by the club!

Award towels were presented during the club’s EOFY drinks at Tuggeranong Vikings Town Centre Club, on Sunday 30 June 2019.

Thank you, and a huge congratulations to the Vikings swimmers who took part in the Endurance Program, as every swim counts.

The NSW event, held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) 15-17 Mar 19, saw David competing in five events, and qualifying for three finals. In the process, he managed to improve two of his personal bests: for the 200m IM (by 3.0 seconds) and the 100m BU (by 2.5 seconds). Event results are on the Swimming NSW website.

This was a great lead-in for David’s participation in the Australian Championships a few weeks later (07-12 Apr 19) at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre in Adelaide. David qualified for three events – 50m BA, 50m FR and 100m FR – and, this time, racked up another two personal bests, including an improvement by a full second in the 50m BA for a very respectable 36.26 seconds! The winner of this event was obviously pushed very hard, setting a new world record for the S9 classification. Full results are available on the Swimming Australia website.

The 2019 MSA National Championships were held in Adelaide from 19-23 March at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park. Over 400 swimmers from all over the country competed, as well as a few visiting Masters swimmers from NZ, USA, UK and Canada.

As well as enjoying the social aspects, all swimmers swam well with numerous PB swims and multiple podium finishes. Overall, the club ended the meet in 13th position from a field of 86 clubs. Not too shabby!

As well as the women’s medley and freestyle relay team, notable individual results included triple gold to Caz Makin in the 200, 400 and 800m FR as well as another gold in the 50m BK , and Ron Watkins’ gold in 50m BU.

For those that just couldn’t get enough, the meet also included, unusually, a 1.5 or 3.0km open-water swim at Brighton Beach on day five following completion of the four days of competition in the pool. Both Caz and Anne took the plunge in the choppy 1.5km event – cheered on by some Vikings who stayed dry and comfortable on the jetty – with Caz taking home a gold, and Anne a silver medal.

It was a particularly strong meet for the Canberra women, with Caz taking the crown as National Champion in her age group, and Lisa gaining equal second overall in her age group, and both Ann Reid and Donna Campbell swimming the maximum allowable twelve individual events over the four days of competition.

Full event results are at the Masters Swimming Australia website. Next year’s event will be run in Short Course format at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC). For the first time ever at our Nationals, multi-class participants will be able to swim in their own multi-class categories within the program. Just enough time to get training!

The Canberra Day holiday long weekend of 09-10-11 March 2019 saw a few extra ACT numberplates amongst the crowds on the highway over to the coast.

Two Vikings – Nicolee Martin and Al Byrne, as well as one former Viking – Petrina Quinn, made the trip to beautiful Broulee on the NSW South Coast for the eighth annual Broulee Bay to Breakers Ocean Swim, held on Sunday 10 March 2019.

This is a 1400 metre ocean swim from Broulee Island to South Broulee Beach, first held in 2012 (then featuring two Vikings ladies amongst the field of 178). To the delight of the hosts at the Broulee Surfers Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC), a record-breaking field of over 400 swimmers signed up this year!

As well as the usual senior male/female ‘age’ categories, the event also included a complementary 500 metre junior event for under 14 and under 12′s.

For the diehards (ie: Nicolee and Petrina), the age category events were followed shortly thereafter by an ‘open’ swim – repeating the full course a second time!

On an absolutely sparkling sunny morning, the day started with the usual safety briefing in front of the Surf Club on South Broulee beach. Swimmers and supporters then made their way on foot the 400 metres around the headland to the start line at Broulee Island. The three groups of senior swimmers entered the water in sequence, with the main groups as well as the outliers well protected enroute by a range of SLSC paddlers, jet-skis and inflatable rescue boats (not to mention a drone overhead!).

With a relaxed atmosphere, a ‘not-too-cold, not-too-hot’ water temperature of about 21.5 degrees, a gentle swell and good visibility in the clean ocean water, it was always going to be a great experience – and it certainly was!

From the large field of competitors, the three Vikings logged results as below:

In what has become something of an Australia Day holiday tradition for the Vikings, a keen group of swimmers and families of swimmers again made their way to the shores of Yarralumla Bay, Lake Burley Griffin, on Monday 28 January 2019 for an afternoon swim followed by a picnic at the beach.

While we didn’t initially get to enjoy quite the sunshine that we’ve seen in previous years, it didn’t faze the fifteen or so swimmers (including our one four-legged swimmer – Rosie – Nicolee’s excitable Schnauzer).

This year, our safety-conscious prez, Greg Gourley, even decided to forgo the swim himself, and made the lap of Spinnaker Island by kayak, acting as our safety boat. Whether he liked it or not, he was ‘assisted’ at random intervals by Rosie!

In an innovation aiming to assist the navigationally challenged among us (ie: those of us that can’t swim in a straight line – your correspondent definitely included!), Anne even dragged her fluorescent orange safety float behind her for the whole swim. Thank you Anne!

As always, great company and a picnic accompanied by a glass or two of holiday cheer, made for a wonderful relaxed afternoon.

It was a wonderful way for the Tuggeranong Vikings Club to start the Masters Swimming 2019 racing season with a trip up the highway to Campbelltown for the first Branch Point Score (BPS) meet of the year. No toll fees or traffic congestion to contest with, just fellow Masters – like minded swimmers, from a total of 29 clubs.

And, we smashed the competition, winning the Average Points per swimmer, with a score of 39.1 points per swimmer from a maximum of 40! This is an incredible achievement and only achieved because all eleven Vikings swam their maximum number of four swims. The club also achieved fourth place on overall club points. Definitely worth huge congratulations…. very well done team!

With the heat wave the East Coast had been experiencing, the water temperature in the 50m outdoor pool at Bradbury was a warm 30 degrees! Other highlights of the meet included the friendly duck that swam alongside many swimmers during the day, and even helped out the officials with some refereeing. The duck even managed to get his/her own story on the MSNSW website!

Swimming highlights include:

•Three Vikings club records – two to Brian Curtis and one to Nick Grinter.

•Age championship wins to Atsuko McGowan and Caroline Makin.

•Both the Women and Men’s medley relay teams winning their age groups.

•But the number one highlight was watching Brian race his 50m butterfly. His children and his teammates watched him make the swim without taking a breath, and in a time of 30s! Post race he stated, however, that he won’t be attempting this again anytime soon and will go back to his usual one breath per 50m!

Congratulations and a big thank you to all eleven swimmers and support crew for an enjoyable and very successful excursion.

After a big night of pre-race preparation at our annual Awards Night and club Christmas party, eleven Vikings (five solo swimmers, a relay team of two and a relay team of four) were brave enough to front up for the Sri Chinmoy National Capital Swim in Canberra’s Lake Burley-Griffin. This is an annual event swum over a huge nine kilometre course passing Government House, Parliament House (old and new), the National Museum, National Library, National Gallery and the High Court. This one is definitely an iconic Canberra event!

There had been some discussion at the Christmas party regarding the recent rain and cold weather, the water temperature reports and the weather forecast. The unknowns meant that wetsuits were definitely worth some careful consideration!

Competitors, their support paddlers, family and friends, and even a few dogs, met at Scrivener Dam at around 7:00 AM, in anticipation of the solo race start at 7:45 AM and teams start at 8:00 AM. At this point, the weather was sunny and calm.

The calm before the storm! (Swimmer: Suzie Gunning, and paddler Dom, her son)

However, casting an eye to the west, towards the Brindabella Ranges, revealed an approaching weather front. During the second leg, at approximately 4 km into the course, the imminent arrival of that front began to be felt – with significant wind waves starting to form. During the third leg the impact of the weather front was well and truly felt! Donna Campbell, acting as support paddler for Nicholas Grinter, capsized her kayak in the rough conditions! A thoroughly drenched Donna quickly recovered to her rightful place, and bravely pressed on! For the swimmers the wind waves made it feel as though they were swimming in a washing machine. For the paddlers; it was like preparing for an Olympic ‘white-water’ slalom!

Anybody seen Donna?

Special congratulations to:

1. Nick Grinter, who won the solo men’s event, despite losing time when paddler Donna went for her unexpected swim!
2. Suzie Gunning, for completing her first 9km solo open-water swim, and
3. Maria Castles, Kirsten Madsen, Bill Eversham and Kris Kennedy – our team of four – who completed their first 9km team open-water swim (in the worst of the conditions).

Results and times for all Vikings swimmers are below. The Sri Chinmoy event page has lots more photos and full results. Our club has regularly had a very good showing at the summer Sri Chinmoy lake swims. Check out the details for the next event, scheduled for Sun 24 Feb 19. Hoping to see you there!

In a change from the ‘barefoot bowls’ we’ve enjoyed for the last couple of years, Social Secretary Donna Campbell booked our club’s annual Christmas function at Capital Brewing, Fyshwick.

This place has it all – it’s a shed located around the corner from the sewerage farm, with burgers and beer. What more do you need?

Seriously – a good choice Donna! Thirty plus Vikings and friends/family of Vikings had a great night.

In addition to presentations of the formal perpetual club awards listed below, a number of, ahhh, ‘novelty’ awards were also dished out to some unsuspecting recipients. To save some embarrassment, no names listed for those ones, so you’ll need to ask!!

The weekend of 19-20-21 October 2018 saw the second Long Course Weekend Jervis Bay event. This is a unique multi-sport festival that offers real atmosphere. Over three days, athletes can choose any or all events from three disciplines (swim – Friday, bike – Saturday and run – Sunday) and multiple distances to create a tailor made weekend course for their ability. Each discipline has at least two distances available, including, for those looking to push their limits, a Long Course option – the longest distance (ie: a full triathlon distance) in each event. This time, two Tuggeranong Vikings – Kirsten Madsen and Maria Castles – made the trip to the beautiful coastal village of Huskisson, joining their friend Kerry O’Neill for the 950m swim leg of the event on the Friday.

Friday was a lovely sunny day with a decent crowd and a good atmosphere around the swim venue – the beach adjacent to White Sands Park at Huskisson. After checking out the course and start set up, it was time to don wetsuits and pose for pre-race photos at the finish line.

The swim was over a triangular course. In the fairly windy conditions, the first leg of the triangle was the hardest swim, due to the chop driven by the wind, with the second and final legs a bit easier. Getting from the water exit point to the ‘arch’ marking the actual course finish line entailed a walk/run up a path of a couple of hundred metres through the bush to the park. All three successfully completed the swim, recording times between approximately 23 and 26 minutes. While the event awards were not categorised according to age groups, these times were quite competitive! All successful swimmers earned a sizable medal – usefully doubling as a fridge magnet!

After a celebratory coffee, all were very pleased to have done it! We can expect to see more from these three, with Kirsten and Kerry having plans for another ocean swim and Maria and Kirsten to take part in the Sri Chimnoy lake swim, here in Canberra, as part of a Vikings club relay team shortly.